My name's Blake and I've just started bow hunting this year. I absolutely love it, but I have never in my life had so many problems taking aim and knockin one down.

Example 1, Opening day, saw a large 6 pt walk right in from of my stand. I waited til he turned and started to draw, but as soon as I started, he turns around as stares dead at me. So I wait.... and try again. Same thing. After about 2 mins of this, the buck catches on and trots off.

Example 2, different location. 3 doe walk out. I'm chomping at the bit to take something with a bow, so pretty much everything in the woods that's brown is becoming fair game. I go to draw up on the lead doe and manage to spook the back one and send them all running. I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing wrong or what tricks I need to work on, but god knows I need help b4 I just put the bow up and wait for rifle season.

I really do enjoy bow hunting but I've now seen 15 deer in 3 weeks including a beautiful 8 pt, two 6's, and a couple of cow horns. It's driving me nuts. Any advice or wisdom from my predecessors would be great.

Patience young Jedi hunter. Why all the frustrations so early on? Everything you are encountering will pay huge dividens down the road. So far so good, you've had several in shooting range, very good! Some will say a mature doe can be the toughest deer in the woods to harvest. You have to learn/train to calm down when deer are approaching you. Allowing them to remain calm and doing their thing and not aware that you are there is the issue. Are hunting from an elevated stand then add some camo around you to conceal yourself some, that will give you additional confidence that the deer are not seeing you. Make sure you use all available scent elimination products you can and watch the wind direction and where you set your stand so that your scent is not constantly carrying downwind to the deer. You should know the general direction the deer travel morning/night so use that info for your stand placement and wind issue. I think you are pretty well on your way to a bow harvest, be patient good things will come.

you got busted by 3 does eh. that's 3 set of eyes all looking at different directions. the odds are in their favor even more than they already were. and they were, heavily. doe are already on what appears to be a caffeine cocktail and will catch the slightest of movements. at least you are seeing deer. seeing is the first line of order in shooting them. be patient and keep practicing.

know it or not you're WAY ahead of the game, at least you have them coming into shooting range, now all you need is to be patient and take some time to study the deer you'll be able to tell when its time to draw back without spooking them, maybe even let them pass by if thats what it takes.
you might even want to try drawing back early, it's a timing thing you may have to hold full draw for a minute or two but again this is something that takes practice.
Hope that makes sense, good luck to you.

__________________

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the outcome of the vote.
-Benjamin Franklin

I agree with what the other guys on here say... just be patient. Make sure you also control your breathing,, even though you may not "hear it" the deer may hear you loud and clear. Also remember that it's best to draw back your bow when a deer is behind a tree, brush, or something that can block your movement. Deer do not have depth perseption.. that's why they are so spooky,,, they don't know how close you really are. That's always why sometimes they stand there 10 yds away and stare at you for 10 minutes.

__________________...and on that day when my strength is failing, the end draws near and my times has come, still my soul will sing Your praise unending, ten thousand years and then forevermore!

just be patient. I finally got my first deer with a bow this year. Been trying for 4-5 years. lol. Everything has to be just right. I have been busted by deer sssooooooo many times , especially while trying to draw back. i always seemed to just not time it right.